Published in Last Word
Last Friday, the House Republican leadership team circulated a memo to their members outlining a plan for a short-term patch for the Highway Trust Fund to avoid impending insolvency and delayed project payments to states this summer.
House Republican Leadership proposed on Friday to use savings from eliminating Saturday mail delivery as a short-term patch for the Highway Trust Fund to avoid impending insolvency and delayed project payments to states this summer.
According to the memo, such a move would save $10.7 billion over 10 years. An additional $1.3 billion transfer from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank fund, which receives 0.1 cents of the federal gas tax, would be added to fund an extension of MAP-21 through May 2015.
Senate Democratic committee leaders immediately opposed the plan. “This idea is a jobs killer which does not even fund the Highway Trust Fund for a long enough period of time to provide the certainty that states, cities, and businesses need," said Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chair of the Environment & Public Works Committee. "It is unworkable, makes no sense, and ignores the huge infrastructure needs we face, as so many bridges and roads are in grave disrepair.”
House leadership recognized the need for a viable, long-term funding solution, but asserted “the serious work needed to develop acceptable policies to achieve structural reform has not been done yet. There is no consensus on what those reforms should be.”
A short-term fix for the Highway Trust Fund and enactment of a long-term reauthorization supported by stable and growing revenues will continue to be high priority advocacy items for ACEC.
#Transportation